Mislead by Vodafone over 'unlimited' internet

Notsram

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Didnt they change the terms and conditions for new customers? If so you may not be able to cancel. Or maybe you can, maybe we both could. Its such a grey area, Vodafone have have not handled this well.

If they'd imposed a 1gig FUP no one would have minded.

I'm not a new customer. I'm an existing customer, just with a new contract. (And they've never sent me a new contract to check, either)

Notsram

nickmack wrote: »

At best it's misleading.

That's precisely what I've been saying to them in my correspondence. Misleading is putting it politely...

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that's just one of the points in my emails which they've chosen not to answer.

Guys_Dad

But if you drop Voda, are the others any better? As mentioned in another thread, the BBC Click program highlighted that all networks were capping the "unlimited" usage.

Notsram

Guys_Dad wrote: »

But if you drop Voda, are the others any better? As mentioned in another thread, the BBC Click program highlighted that all networks were capping the "unlimited" usage.

To be honest, it's more the principle of the thing. I've been polite in my emails to Vodafone, saying that I was given 'misleading' information, but basically, their sales rep lied to me (and judging by the amount of people who are angry at Vodafone both on here and on other sites), I'm not the first person they've 'misled'.

I'd rather pay a bit extra to a company who at least admit they have a usage cap rather than give these thieving gits my money.

gjchester

Notsram wrote: »

That's precisely what I've been saying to them in my correspondence. Misleading is putting it politely...

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that's just one of the points in my emails which they've chosen not to answer.

This has been raised many times, unfortunatly the ASA say that unlimited does not have to be unlimited to be truthful as long as most people will not hit the limit and so to them it is effectivly unlimited. *ALL* networks have been brought up before the ASA before and none have been told they must stop the use of the words "unlimited" as long as the FUP is in the advert.

Do I think it's misleading yes, but as the ASA don't so Vodafone (and all the other networks) are free to keep using the term as long as they state there is a FUP.



The last ajudication case which vodafone won to this effect is found here http://www.asa.org.uk/Complaints-and-ASA-action/Adjudications/2009/12/Vodafone-Ltd/TF_ADJ_47835.aspx and the text of it is below.



The ASA noted the claim "Unlimited*", as it related to both the data and text offers, was linked to a footnote that stated the existence of the fair usage policy for both services and, specifically, stated that a monthly allowance of 500 MB applied to the unlimited data offer. We noted previous ASA adjudications on the use of unlimited claims when a fair usage policy applied established that the use of the claim was acceptable provided that the existence of the policy was stated clearly in the ad and the the policy could be considered reasonable in that it could be shown to affect only atypical users.
We noted Vodafone said they applied fair usage policies to ensure that a small minority of users did not adversely affect their services and, in particular, that their data service had sufficient bandwidth available for all users. We noted Vodafones user data showed only a very small minority of users on the unlimited data and text services were affected by the respective fair usage policies. We understood that the available bandwidth for mobile services was less abundant than that available for fixed line telephony, which resulted in a greater need for service providers to safeguard their networks from excessive use.
We noted Vodafones terms and conditions for the unlimited data service reserved the right to charge users who breached the fair usage policy and the terms and conditions for the unlimited text service made clear that those users exceeding the specified 3,000 texts a month would be automatically charged at their network rates. We noted previous ASA adjudications did not specifically comment on the type of measures that were utilised by providers to regulate the usage of atypical users but understood that they did note providers used policies, such as monitoring of the accounts of users who breached the fair usage policy, to ascertain whether the account was being used excessively.
Although we noted the difference between the sanctions observed in previous adjudications and Vodafones policy of reserving the right to charge and, in the case of the unlimited text service charging automatically, we considered that Vodafone had demonstrated through the usage data that it affected only atypical users. Because Vodafone had stated the existence of their fair usage policies in the ad and had shown that they could be considered to be reasonable, we therefore concluded that the ad was unlikely to mislead.
We investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness) but did not find it in breach.

Notsram

To say 'most people won't hit the limit' is simply going to become less and less true, IMO. I'm quite certain I never got remotely close to hitting this limit with my previous phone, because it was so slow and cumbersome to use the internet on it that I rarely bothered.

Admittedly I downloaded a few apps when I first got my new phone(doesn't everyone?), but those aside I basically use it for email and maybe 10 mins of web surfing a day. That's normal websites, not youtube or streaming radio. Yet I was still way over the FUP limit. 500MB simply isn't enough with these new phones. That's not unlimited, or even remotely close to it.

Anyway, I'm going to keep annoying Vodafone with calls and emails. Maybe they'll get sick enough of me pestering them to actually do something about it, and if not, then as soon as they start charging me extra, that'll increase my bill by more than 10% which will give me the right to cancel...

*edit* I didn't respond to an advert by the way. I was cold called by a Vodafone sales rep, so didn't have any small print to refer to.

gjchester

Notsram wrote: »

I didn't respond to an advert by the way. I was cold called by a Vodafone sales rep, so didn't have any small print to refer to.

Again I'll point out you not asking for details of a contract and reading the T&C is not a reason to cancel. Ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law.

You would have had 7 days under the DSR to read the small print and return the phone if you did not agree.

You said in the Desire thread you have had the ophone a month, the 500GB limit came in on the 1st of June. If you took the phone out after that you may find you have no wiggle room anyway as the contract will be under the new T&C's which state the limit.

Notsram

Hehe, the one bit of good luck I've had in this is that I got the phone the last week in May:)

Point taken about the contract, but, that aside, I was still given false sales information. I've sent a mesasge to Ofcom about it too. I know they don't investigate individual cases, but maybe if they do look into this, at least salesmen will have to be a bit more honest (ie not lie ) when selling a product.

ruggedtoast

gjchester wrote: »

Again I'll point out you not asking for details of a contract and reading the T&C is not a reason to cancel. Ignorance is not an excuse in the eyes of the law.

You would have had 7 days under the DSR to read the small print and return the phone if you did not agree.

You said in the Desire thread you have had the ophone a month, the 500GB limit came in on the 1st of June. If you took the phone out after that you may find you have no wiggle room anyway as the contract will be under the new T&C's which state the limit.

Have you ever tried to get the terms and conditions from Vodafone? Their website is baffling. It totally contradicts what their staff say, and its next to imposivle to het them to send anything to you in writing other than a cut and paste email.

In the US we would probably be in the realms of a class action suit.

However this is rip off Britain where "unlimited internet" equates to about 2 hours watching youtube videos.

gjchester

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Have you ever tried to get the terms and conditions from Vodafone? Their website is baffling. It totally contradicts what their staff say, and its next to imposivle to het them to send anything to you in writing other than a cut and paste email.

Bottom of every page has a footer that says

• Copyright 2010 |
• Privacy policy |
• Terms and conditions |
• Registered office: Vodafone House, The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2FN. Registered in England No 1471587.

With a link to the T&C so it's not that hard to find.